The Platonics Pt. II: Rugged Ivy Icons

What even is ruggedness, anyway?

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We’re running long this week! Too long for email, read in the app or browser to get the whole thing. Keep dressin’, C

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As I made clear in the first volume of The Platonics, the making of listicles is not exactly harmonious with what I seek to achieve in my writing. On the other hand, the making of concise and comprehensive lists of the core elements of a given style can be very helpful, so here we are.

Last time out we took a look at some of the iconic pieces in an ivy wardrobe, today we’ll shift focus to heavy-duty and rugged ivy, terms which, by now, are pretty much interchangeable. At one point they expressed nuanced difference, but these days we can quite comfortably say either to effectively communicate the idea of collegiate fashion with a rugged edge, and so I’m going to use them both to avoid repeating myself a million times.

So, here’s a reference list for some core pieces of heavy-duty and/or rugged ivy, but as this is The Prep Club, there’ll be something else to learn along the way. Last time out we tried to distill what it is exactly that makes a given item the quintessential example of its class. We landed upon a combination of proliferation, providence, and peculiarity. Today, I hope to glean a greater understanding of ruggedness and of how a garment can come to possess it as a quality.

Welcome to this week’s meeting of The Prep Club, last week’s issue of THE RADAR is available here, and as always The Directory is available as a comprehensive list of labels, new this week:

Aftertaste - Depop (ships from UK) - Impeccably curated and presented vintage on Depop, extending way beyond the standard buy-by-the-bale fair which the app has unfortunately become known for. Regular listings of varsity knitwear, vintage ringer tees.

Fitzgerald’s Clothiers - Notably distinct from Fitzgerald (no possessive), regrettably defunct shirtmaker specialising in ivy silhouettes, phenomenal collar roll, back buttons, locker loops.

THE DIRECTORY

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Ruggedness is easy to understand intuitively, but as any abstract, possessed quality it’s much trickier to articulate and formulate. Ruggedness too is a quality which is applied to different clothes for a lot of different reasonings, the hope today is to gain better clarity on what it means for a garm to be rugged within the ivy canon.

So, as once before, allow me to present the second cohort of The Platonics, pieces which are not essential but perhaps are quintessential. You absolutely do not need all of these- you don’t need any of these- for a rugged collegiate wardrobe, but they are the classics, the number one hits.

Orange Mountain Parka

Part I of The Platonics generally avoided discussions of label, the same cannot be said today. The nature of most of these pieces as more recent innovations means they’re closely associated with their manufacturers. One such manufacturer being Sierra Designs- for greater details on the labels featured going forwards, consult the Retro Gorp Handbook or The Directory.

The mountain parka is perhaps as much a part of the ivy canon as the sack jacket, it features almost as frequently in later period photography. Particularly on the more rural campus of Dartmouth, a jacket that goes comfortably from class to trail just makes sense. Our quintessential example has to be orange, the original choice offered by Sierra, though any bold tone will fulfil a similar purpose.

You’ll note far brighter colours present in the heavy-duty canon as compared to a more urban ivy, this coming from the garments in question’s intended uses as outdoor equipment, where bright colours can be the difference between the rescue helicopter and the bears finding you first. Here we see our first source of ruggedness, intended use. Most of these garms are meant for outdoor pursuits, that association alone puts them in a different space. As a result of this intended use, they are made of hard wearing fabrics which too communicate, intuitively because of their use cases, a sense of ruggedness, there’s a sort of symbiosis going on there.

As mentioned above, these tend to get styled in place of a sport coat overtop of button-downs and shetlands.

Red Down Parka

Another classic coat that is inseparable from the label that makes it, Eddie Bauer’s Down Parka is one of, if not the most iconic down jacket going. Wether it’s the Karakoram, made to tackle the most extreme terrestrial environments that mankind has ever ventured to, or the more accessible Snowline designs. Explorers in picture books will be picked out in bright red against snowy tundra backdrops because of Bauer. It is this red which has to be our platonic example, again, the original colour in which it was produced, chosen not for style but for practicality.

There is an additional sense of ruggedness to be found in unabashed function over form, to a certain extent clothes in this style ought to look out of place, at least heavily recontextualised. A bright red parka over the top of the more austere browns, greys, and blues we’d associate with the ivy of the fifties and sixties has a distinct affect.

These days picking up a legit Bauer Karakoram for anywhere near a good price is unlikely, going for a good quality replica is probably your best bet. Snowlines are a little easier to come by.

Also, against what is so often a sea black and grey in winter, dropping a red Bauer in the city is a baller move.

Duck Boots/ Mocs

Whilst there’s a full suite of retro hiking boots and the like that sit quite squarely into these sorts of looks, none are so closely connected to the ivy tradition as the duck boot, or it’s low cut sibling the rubber moc. Two-tone brown on tan is the classic look, nearly impossible to pick between the boot and the moc though so they get a double feature here.

We get this sense with duck boots that, for heavy duty etc., a garm needs not only to be outdoor-worthy, but the sort of outdoor-worthy that would be of use in New England. It’s almost always cold or wet weather kit, in fact the rugged ivy canon focusses very intently on autumn and winter. Summer outdoor pursuits, sailing as an example, seem to fit into a category of their own, curiously that which is nautical is seldom also considered rugged.

The other beauty of these is they can be added to pretty much any casual ivy look to skew it into the rugged ivy canon. Plus, they’re super cheap to pick up second hand with a bit of searching and good fortune, I paid £15 for mine.

Brown five pocket cords

Whilst khakis are the ivy standard, this canon requires something better suited to cold climes. The five pocket, as opposed to a pleated slack, is the other key change offer sufficient outdoor pedigree to our cotton trouser of choice.

Of note here is colour, it is very specifically a corduroy pant in brown- or some variation thereof: tan/olive/etc. The same pants in a navy or burgundy would not fit the bill, here we start to see that ruggedness extends as a more ephemeral concept beyond just having an intended outdoor use. There is a wider sense of connotation, as there was in the nature of quintessence, at play, these earth tones work to connote the outdoors even if they are not innately better suited for it.

Blackwatch Tartan shirt

In place of the OCBD, the rugged ivy dresser likely opts for their button-down in a heavier cotton brushed twill or flannel. As with the cords above, we see the same ivy silhouettes cut in harder-wearing, warmer cloths.

There is something inherently rugged too about tartan, of course it has a long pedigree from Scotland, but it manages to retain that when kilts are swapped for collars. Of all the tartans, none is more ubiquitous and versatile as the blues and greens of Blackwatch, as such it has to be our pick for quintessential heavy-duty shirting.

Tan Bucket hat

A garment which lives a great many lives with a great many associations, and whilst these days you’re more likely to see them at music festivals than trailheads, a simple iteration in tan, with a navy band, still has a place in our list.

Another garm for which connotation through material and colour is vital to communicate ruggedness. Hats feature a lot more in the rugged-ivy canon than in our original ivy list, as a result of the function over form approach which permeates all of this, the quality which I believe has resulted in ivy being so enduring and enticing some sixty years on.

Brown Camp Mocs

You could get away with rubber mocs with every outfit here, but coming in a close footwear second would have to be the camp moc. Bean are pretty much the undisputed champs in this category.

Derived from native moccasins, one-eye construction (don’t get caught out by the modern Bass versions which bizarrely are four-eye). Slim, to be slipped into a rucksack and changed into when the need for comfort overtakes that of water resistance.

There’s a lot of brown in rugged ivy, all leather seems to be brown, never black, there is some sort of sense of natural-ness that comes from that, which in turn contributes to ruggedness.

Mid-Wash 501

A repeat from pt. I, but one that couldn’t go unmentioned. Looking at any reference of hikers from the era in question serves up image after image of walkers in well-worn 501s. Whilst the thought seems quite outlandish to anyone who hikes these days, the 501 is undeniable as a part of this canon.

We tend to consider denim as a rugged fabric for its use as workwear, yet here I don’t believe that’s the case, these jeans are not oil stained or worn through at the knees, they’re well washed and made comfortable. It is in their use as outdoor wear, once again, that gives them that rugged connotation in this context. Thus we see that when it comes to rugged ivy, that “rugged” means a very specific thing, different from a workwear rugged or a western rugged. Remarkably, it manages to avoid class cosplay, and find another in to the hard-wearing aesthetic, one congruent with the privilege which ivy style was built on (and that cannot be ignored post-democratisation).

Fishing Cap

Four panel construction, in khaki, with a long brim, possibly in a black leather or plastic colour contrast. A garm associated with a specific outdoor pursuit beyond simply “adventure”. Whilst fishing isn’t particularly associated with the ivy lifestyle (neither is duck hunting, looking back at the rubber mocs), this cap still fits neatly into our canon.

I feel like this is a perfect example of form following function, this thing looks pretty silly outside of it’s natural habitat. As such it can only really belong in a style of dress for which the look relies on the connotations given by ruggedness.

Beige Down bomber

Rounding with another option from Bauer. The Original and Skyliner model down jackets, in beige. A lot more understated than the other jackets featured above. The original down lined outerwear, and that large diamond quilting remains undefeated for cool points.

When it comes to outdoor pedigree, there really is no competition, made in response to a near death mountaineering experience, the single greatest innovation in outdoor wear made in the twentieth century (yes, bigger than Gore-Tex).

Honourable Mentions

Just a few others that bear mentioning, without the full shpiel.

Blue Baxter Parka - Bean’s answer to the Sierra mountain, iconic in blue rather than orange.

Down vests - Fit neatly alongside the down jackets and parkas already listed, great over knitwear or even sport-coats

Shetland Knits - As popular for heavy-duty as they are for ivy, the go to pairing with any of these down jackets.

M65 Fatigues - Both the jacket and pants fit very comfortably with looks of this style, though they don’t feature significantly in period references.

A sense of ruggedness

Ruggedness as a term isn’t very effective in communicating what it means, if only for the fact that it means very different things in different styles. Whilst it may connote hard-wearing work gear, western-wear, or techier outdoor kit, we can find a common thread in function over form, and beauty derived thereof. Ruggedness means clothing with a clear purpose, that is beautiful because of that purpose.

In the ivy context, that purpose is adventure, a lot more frivolous as a pursuit than the workwear angle, but then frivolity presented in an austere fashion is somewhat of an ivy fundamental. Adding in that ruggedness makes ivy a whole lot cooler, more modern, more distinct from what some just perceive as “smart casual”. It’s a move, always has been.

Prep club adjourned, catch you soon.

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